People are increasingly transacting online in lieu of or in addition to the transactions that they conduct in brick and mortar stores and other venues. For example, instead of purchasing a movie in a physical store, a consumer may instead purchase the movie from a large electronic retailer or an auction site. The consumer may also make use of an electronic payment service to acquire the movie from a smaller virtual store or another individual. Similarly, blogs and virtual meeting places such as bulletin boards (referred to herein collectively as “social networking sites”) are increasingly used to communicate in lieu of more traditional methods such as the telephone or physical interactions. As used herein, “electronic transactions” include the interactions (whether financial, social, etc.) that a user has with a site (such as posting to a blog, commenting on a story, and purchasing an item).
Unfortunately, electronic transactions can be problematic. Often a user must establish an account at a site with which he or she transacts, sometimes including personal/sensitive information such as a home address, age, phone number, credit card number, etc. (referred to herein collectively as “identity information”). If a site is breached (or is otherwise unscrupulous in managing identity information), users may never be informed. Nefarious individuals may use identity information belonging to another person (e.g., billing address and credit card number) to make fraudulent purchases and may evade detection until it is too late for the victim to gain any recourse.
A person's reputation is another example of identity information that can be compromised online. On auction sites, users are typically encouraged to rate their transactions with one another (e.g., as a feedback score). In the case of blogs, what is said about an individual or attributed to that individual can affect that user's reputation. If the reputation information is false, e.g., because unflattering feedback is left or because unfounded accusations are made in a blog, the victim of that inaccurate information may never be informed. When an employer, buyer, seller, or other interested party learns, for example through an Internet search on a victim's name, unflattering, inaccurate information about the victim, the victim may be harmed financially, professionally, etc., potentially without ever knowing that the information exists and/or was viewed.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a better way to protect identity information.